Senate Sets Aside Bill on Gun Limits

RICHMOND, March 8 -- Swayed by a last-minute push from business groups, the Virginia Senate on Wednesday turned aside a bill that would have made it illegal for businesses that allow the public into their parking lots to adopt rules prohibiting weapons in locked cars.

The Senate debate on a bill that had passed the House of Delegates involved a rare showdown pitting property rights against gun rights.

Proponents said the ability of law-abiding people to carry weapons for self-defense would be diminished if malls, stores and companies made parking lots off-limits for guns. Business groups, including the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, launched a lobbying campaign in the Senate saying the bill would violate property rights.

As lawmakers gathered for Wednesday's session, lobbyists swirled in the foyer outside the Senate, handing out bright yellow fliers to lawmakers to explain their opposition. "Gun Rights Should Not Trump Private Property Rights" read a flier sponsored by six groups.

Restaurants and retailers had been particularly opposed to the bill, as were hospitals, health care groups, colleges and universities. "Our members were very concerned that they were losing the ability to govern their own workplaces," said Hugh D. Keogh, president and chief executive of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, which hadn't formally opposed the bill until Wednesday.

The Senate voted to send the bill back to committee. Because the panel is not scheduled to meet again before the legislature adjourns Saturday, that effectively delays action for at least a year.

The House and Senate are controlled by Republicans. The fight involved two groups important to Republicans: on the one hand, business interests, and on the other, the National Rifle Association, which had made the bill a top priority.

The NRA has been encouraging similar legislation nationwide since 12 workers were fired from a Weyerhaeuser paper mill in Oklahoma after guns were found in their cars in violation of company policy in 2002.

"Nobody likes bills that conflict different interest groups that are traditionally supportive of your base," said state Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle (R-Virginia Beach), chairman of the Courts of Justice Committee, which approved the bill 8 to 7.

With such touchy politics mixing significant constituencies and principles, observers and legislators said the safest route was to delay action. The decision to send the bill back to committee, suggested by Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr. (R-Winchester), was made by a voice vote.

"Those are both very important conservative principles, which is where the mainstream of the General Assembly is," said Thomas A. Lisk, an attorney working for the Virginia Retail Merchants Association and the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association. "When you ask the two to go into conflict, many legislators say it's better to go with the status quo rather than put one before the other."

After the Oklahoma incident, the legislature there passed a similar statute preventing companies from adopting no-gun rules. Several large companies, including ConocoPhillips, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law. There has been no decision in the case. Virginia senators said delaying the bill until next year would give time for the court to rule.

Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Prince William) had worked to include exemptions to the measure to make it more palatable for major employers. It would not have applied to schools or to parking lots where access was restricted by gates, security guards or signs.

He called the vote a "precipitous action" and complained that Potts did not consult with him.

"Any person who carries a firearm for personal protection now faces the threat that anti-Second Amendment forces will start putting general public parking off-limits to lawful gun owners," he said in a statement.

Joel Partridge, state liaison for the NRA, said the group has not given up on the idea.

"In reality, this isn't the NRA taking on any particular special interest or big business or the chamber," he said. "This is simply the NRA standing up for individual gun owners."